The government exploits the comparative advantages of Cyprus and aims at turning the country into a modern international business and services centre, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Antonis Paschalides has said. Addressing Wednesday the Annual Economic Congress of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Cyprus (ICPAC), which took place in Nicosia, Paschalides said

Japan's economy shrank much more than expected in the first quarter and slipped into recession after the triple blow of the March earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis hit business and consumer spending and tore apart supply chains. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) expects the economy to resume growing in the second half of the year,

The dollar slipped on Thursday with funds sensing a rally this month is ending and expectations increasing that commodity prices have resumed an uptrend, pushing up equities in Asia's energy and materials sectors. Investors have been struggling to find a common theme in financial markets after two routs in commodities over the past two weeks

Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund, saying he needed to devote all his energy to fight charges that he sexually assaulted a hotel maid. His arrest after he was pulled from a plane in New York on Saturday dashes Strauss-Kahn's prospects of running for the French presidency in 2012 and has

One in three university students in the German capital would consider sex work as a means to finance their education, a study from the Berlin Studies Centre said on Wednesday. The figure in Berlin, where prostitution is legal, was higher than students surveyed in Paris (29.2 percent) and in Kiev (18.5 percent), the three cities

A shake-up of copyright laws could add nearly 8 billion pounds to the economy by putting it on par with international competitors, an independent report welcomed by government ministers said on Wednesday. The Digital Opportunity review was commissioned to address concerns that Britain's "archaic" intellectual property laws have failed to keep pace with how music

A Ukrainian weather forecaster has created a storm of her own by taking a swipe at Ukraine's leadership during a live radio broadcast. Lyudmila Savchenko, head of the forecasting section of Ukraine's meteorological service who has become a well-known voice on national radio with her daily weather reports, put her own spin on why the

EU plans to cut energy use by 2020 risk raising the proportion imported from outside the bloc, partly due to domestic nuclear power curbs, Danish academic and environmental writer Bjorn Lomborg said on Wednesday. The European Union, which imports half its energy, set a goal in 2009 of reducing consumption by 20 percent below projected

* IMF warns Greece bailout off track without more reforms * Unclear if Greece can return to markets in 2012 – Thomsen * ECB's Stark – restructuring would be recipe for disaster The IMF warned Greece on Wednesday it must redouble reform efforts to avoid derailing its fiscal programme, key to dealing with a huge

The rugged Cornish coast will be the first part of Britain to host the London 2012 Olympics torch next year after organisers named Land's End as the starting point of an 8,000 mile journey around the United Kingdom. Announcing the route of the torch relay on Wednesday, London's organising committee (LOCOG) said the flame would